Winners of the Boston Marathon: Meb Keflezighi, and Skechers

Meb Keflezighi of the U.S. reacts as he wins the men’s division at the 118th running of the Boston Marathon

REUTERS

Meb Keflezighi became the first American since 1985 to win the Boston Marathon on Monday—and the first to do so wearing Skechers.

The company is best known for its casual shoes and for an ill-fated experiment with curved-sole models that it marketed as butt-firming. Skechers launched a performance line for serious athletes in 2011 and signed Mr. Keflezighi as a spokesman.

The company — which produced 10 of the top 250 models of all shoes in 2013 – still doesn’t have much of a presence in the $7 billion performance running show market, according to Matt Powell, an analyst for industry tracker SportsOneSource. The Boston win may give it a boost.

Mr. Keflezighi, 38, cemented his status as one of the all-time great American marathoners with his win Monday. The victory added to a resume that already includes a win at the 2009 New York City Marathon (ending a 27-year U.S. champion drought in that race) and a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic marathon.

The win catches Skechers on the upswing. Sales rose 18% last year to $1.8 billion – a big gain after the company paid $40 million in 2012 to settle false-advertisement claims with the Federal Trade Commission over its supposedly toning Shape-ups shoes, according to a regulatory filing.

Until today’s win, Skechers was often known for its curved-soled “toning” shoes rather than high-performance running gear

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Skechers mentions Mr. Keflezighi three times in its most recent annual filing with the SEC. His contract renewal with the company in 2012 was distinctive in that it didn’t feature “reduction clauses” that would allow Skechers to scale back his base pay if he didn’t perform well in races. The contract also provided that Mr. Keflezighi would be able to wear logos of other corporate sponsors, another rarity in a market where most professional runners earn a substantial portion of their income from deals with shoe companies, which typically demand exclusivity.

Many elite marathoners run for traditional performance running companies like Nike, Adidas and Brooks. Mr. Keflezighi himself previously ran for Nike but didn’t renew his contract in 2010, because he thought Nike wasn’t offering enough. Nike didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I have nothing against Nike,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month. “It’s a business decision they have to make. But at the same time, there’s people that are employed by Nike that hopefully regret their decision.”